Friday, August 26, 2016

2015 had it all movie wise. There were blockbusters, a Tom Hanks movie, an animation film, a Johnny Depp flop, Minions, Tomorrowland, James Bond, and more. Box office results were mind boggling.

The Acadamy Award for Best Picture went to Spotlight. I think they got it right. Spotlight was an excellent film about the exposure of abuse at the hands of the Catholic Church. The movie was done in a quiet, straight forward manner that belied its subject matter and told a very important story. It showed what real working journalists are capable of.

I also got a kick out of Meryl Streep's movie Ricki and the Flash about an aging rocker mom and her relationship with her family.

As to the box office king Star Wars? ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. And I am a huge Star Wars fan.

This topic was my suggestion. To see what Ramana has to say check here.

Friday, August 19, 2016

Another Ramana pick (the u gives it away) - and my favorite season is - drum roll please - the Fall.

For as long as I can remember the Fall has been my favorite time of year. The temperature drops, the leaves change - Halloween, the Great Pumpkin, Ghosts, goblins and witches all make an appearance. What could be better??

When I was a kid in Colorado every fall we would take a weekend trip to Aspen to see the trees Nothing much compares to the color and majesty of the Aspen change.

During te six years I played high school and college football there was that moment when the time changed - the fall behind. That meant we either got out of practice an hour early or we ran conditioning drills in the dark. A double winner - yes it's the small things that matter. It became a game game between the coaches and players about cutting corners on hose runs.The Fall also begins the run up to tje holiday season here. Anticipation builds for Christmas or whichever of the holidays holds meaning for you but frankly the Christmas anticipation swept everyone along.I'll leave you with this version of the penultimate version of a Fall classic - I chose this version to honor Brian Scott - my lifelong friend who could blow a sax worthy of Stan Getz

Thursday, August 11, 2016

I cannot give only one - I must offer three. The first two I actually owned and lastly there is my all time favorite vehicle. First up is my very first car - a 1956 MGA. Yes - I did fit in it and I loved it. In case you are wondering, I got in it one leg at a time -just like everyone. My friends and I were all sports car buffs - MGA, MG Midget, Sunbeam Alpine, Triumph gts Spitfire. We used to participate in ralleys on Friday nights - great fun.

Those were events where you were given a list of coded instructions and you drive around looking for pie plates with more codes on them. There was a scoring system and my friend Lyn and I picked up a few trophies.

Interestingly enough my fave vehicle led directly to my second favorite. My friend Dave Wolfer lived up the street from me and he had a Honda 450 motorcycle. He also had a girlfriend which at the time I did not so we worked out a trade. He got my MGA, I got his Honda on Friday and Saturday nights.. When I moved to Hawaii I purchased my number two a, Suzuki 550.

I have often joked the way to make Suzuki 550 look like a Honda 50 is to put me on it. That's my mom in the pic as well. To this day I remember the day the big waves came up at Waimea Bay and I took the afternoon off to go see them. I stopped at Matsumoto's Shave Ice for a little bit of heaven (if you have ever had a shave ice you know what I mean) and then went to Waimea Bay and was absolutely awed by the giant waves. Another fave thing to do was go to the beach where the glider school had their student pilots swooping and gliding - very impressive stuff. Since Lynn was not a fan of motorcycles, I was somewhat surprised she readily agreed to let me buy one- LOL. Maybe I should have checked for extra life insurance policies.

My all time favorite vehicle is the Shelby Cobra - either version will do (289 or 427 cubic inch engine) and looks just like this

Sex
appeal, muscle - sigh. When I worked at McDonalds our assistant manager, Greg Nakagawa, had a 289 Cobra. It wasn't quite as pretty as this one but it was great
none the less. This is also my favorite color combination. Up to 600HP.
And you know you need all that power. It is the reason I keep buying
the occasional lottery ticket. It is the last of my bucket list. Clearly
the stuff dreams are made of. At least mine.

Friday, August 5, 2016

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it — George Santayana. Sounds reasonable, logical - so it must be true. But is it? I think we can agree that history is the the study of past events. One thing about history - it is written by the winners. That guarantees a particular slant or bias toward the "losers". What? You think that is not accurate? I suggest you look at commentary on the presidency of Barrack Obama - from the perspective of democrats and then republicans. The democrats paint a glowing picture of success in the face of republican obstructionism, the republicans paint a gloomy portrait of a country in disarray, a foreign policy of abject failure. But which is accurate?The simple answer is both views are somewhat accurate. Both sides spin the statistics to support their position. Ya gotta love statistics. IMHO any "science" that includes three different options/definitions for average is suspect (mean, median and mode). That's just too much room for spin for my liking. But it is caveat emptor for the reader/student. The truth is out there, and although it takes a lot of effort to find it, the search for the truth can be a hell of a lot of fun.

Texas has been in the news for quite some time over ideological issues regarding their text books. It is a fascinating tale of political interference oin education. If you are interested, simply look here.

Interesting - is a text book supposed to be fair and balanced or simply accurate? Can a book be accurate and not fair and balanced? Is fair and balanced really just for news? Today's news is tomorrow's history. How that history is reflected in text books goes a long way toward shaping the opinions of generations of students.

Anyone keeping up with current events has heard that our White House was built in part by slaves. But Bill O'Reilly says "Slaves that worked there were well fed and had decent lodgings provided by the government" Lucky them. BTW - O'Reilly spent some time as a history teacher and majored in History as an undergrad. Wonder if his views would be different had his textbooks been different?

Those of us who enjoy history and research don't really mind that history is not necessarily black and white - that there are many sources to consider for important historical events. The research is the fun of it frankly. Paul Simon nailed it - everything looks worse in black and white.

And what about Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it — George Santayana? It is more important now than ever methinks.